Abstract:
Galaxy mergers are expected to produce multiple supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in close-separation, but the detection of such SMBHs has been difficult. We found a red active galactic nucleus (AGN) of 2MASS J165939.7 + 183436 (1659+1834), as a prospective merging SMBH candidate owing to its merging features in Hubble Space Telescope imaging and double-peaked broad emission lines (BELs). We performed a Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph Integral Field Unit observation of a double-peaked broad Hα line of 1659+1834. Furthermore, we confirm the existence of two BEL peaks that are kinematically separated by 3000 km/s, with the SMBH of each BEL component weighing at 10^(8.92±0.06)M⊙ and 10^(7.13±0.06)M⊙, if they arise from independent BELs near the two SMBHs. The BEL components were not separated at >0.1"; however, under several plausible assumptions regarding the fitting of each spaxel, the two components are found to be spatially separated at 0.085" (∼250 pc). Different assumptions for the fitting can lead to a null (<0.05") or a larger spatial separation (∼0.15"). Given the uncertainty regarding the spatial separation, various models, such as the disk emitter and multiple SMBH models, are viable solutions to explain the double BEL components. In addition, I present another ongoing project to find a relationship between bolometric luminosities and hot dust torus luminosities.
